What to do when you dog is afraid of something?
First very important thing, don’t panic and don’t get upset with your dog.
A dog that is reacting to something is scared and cannot control the reaction. When they start barking they are gone over the threshold and calming down can be difficult.
First step to help them is to take them far away from the trigger. It’s not always lacking of socialization, if a dog react it’s just scared and when you are scared you don’t want to stay close to your fear.
Get them far away and allow them to calm down. Do some tricks, get some good treats out and bring them back to a calm and more positive emotional state.
Once you know what it they are afraid of you can start working on it.
Keeping your distance, you can start to work on reducing the fear reaction in the presence of the trigger.
Don’t tell your dog off for being afraid, and very important don’t be afraid to reward a behaviour that is consequence of fear. There is no way you can reinforce fear!